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waves across a green ocean.
"Oh, well done, Eddas. Very well done, indeed," a voice said from behind me. I
turned to look, and saw a grey-robed, balding, white-haired elderly man step
around the eastern corner of the parapet and walk over to me. His beard was
long and full, and he carried weight and power in his frame. He stood before
me, and stared at me with eyes that glowed yellow-gold.
"Thank you, Yorindar, but why is it you always prefer to talk to me when I
have fainted with exhaustion or am near death?"
"Your mind is quite strong, Eddas, and penetrating your dreams is quite
difficult. It's easier when you're like this," he replied with a wry smile.
"Now hush - I have something important to say to you, and I don't have a lot
of time to say it. I'm quite busy elsewhere, as I'm sure you've realized by
now."
"Yes, with Darian and his children. Go on, I'm listening."
"What you're doing right now?"
"Yes?"
"Keep it up. Oh - and try to remember: You and I are not in this alone. Vyleah
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and her rabbit are with us" he said, a wry smile lighting the corners of his
mouth as he already began to slowly fade away.
"Keep it up? Keep what up? What I'm doing right now basically amounts to
nothing!"
"Exactly," Yorindar's voice replied from nowhere.
I awoke to see an olive-skinned woman's face looming over mine - a beautiful,
Hyperborean woman, and for a brief instant, my heart leapt at the thought of
Dyarzi. It was several long moments before my wits gathered enough for me to
realize I was staring into the face of Pelia Cydalion, the White Witch of Iolo
Mountain. Behind her were even more smiling women's faces I didn't recognize
at all for several long moments, until I remembered - the summoning! "Did I
get the last one?" I asked, my voice an exhausted whisper.
"Yes, Master Eddas. You got them all," Pelia replied, and hugged me.
"Good. How long was I unconscious?"
"Not long, Master Eddas. Perhaps five minutes, at most," one of the others
replied.
"Also good," I replied, sitting up. My head swam with exhaustion, but I forced
my body to comply. "How are you feeling, Pelia? Can you cast a spell of
returning?" I asked.
"Barely," she replied.
"Good. Go back to your tower, grab everything of importance you can carry,
tell all your followers to do the same while you rest, then come back here as
fast as you can."
"Alright, but why?"
"The first thing they will try to do is figure out what happened. They've got
restless spirits annoying them at night and making it hard for them to sleep -
they're going to be tired, and not focused. It will take them perhaps half an
hour to analyze the astral residue and figure out that all their prisoners
were summoned away. They'll know only one of two people could have done it -
me or you. They'll realize I don't have the strength to cast a major summoning
like that twenty-eight times - much less the forty times we ended up having to
do it. That means they'll assume the Mountain Healers got together as a group
to do it. The spell was rare in my day, and no-one in my circle had it - it's
not likely any of them have it now, so they can't just summon them back. That
means they'll gather together and go back to your tower and try to take them
back by force. If you're not there, they can't get you."
"But then they'll just come to the next obvious place - right here."
"That, Pelia, is exactly what I am hoping for. They probably won't, because
they know who my allies are, but at this point I am sincerely hoping they do,"
I said, summoning my staff to my grip. Using my staff, I started to drag
myself to my feet. Pelia reached out and helped me up, as did all the women
within reach. "Thank you. Pelia, get going. Take these women with you, so they
can dress and gather what they may of their possessions. I can remove their
geasa later. Hurry," I said, and staggered out to the parapet.
It took ten minutes to explain to Dragonslayer what had happened, and what I
needed to be done. Dragonslayer nodded, picked up his enormous club, and told
his son to run back to the village while he watched over the others. A giant's
run isn't like a human's run - it just looks like a human taking long, rapid
and deliberate strides to walk very fast, pumping their arms rapidly (if they
ran like humans did, they'd shatter the bones in their legs). It's almost
comical to watch - until you realize that with their enormously long stride,
they're easily out-running a galloping horse. The giantesses were nervous, but
seeing Dragonslayer watching over them made them feel better, and they
gradually went back to work.
Half an hour later, six giants of Dohbari village came over the hill and down
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